Entries in the 'Q&A' Category

An Everlasting Sensation Of An Eternal Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Where exactly should a person start in order to feel the whole system of the universe inside?

Answer: Start only from our joint inclusion into a single group. Men or women, irrespective of who, where, and how, if everyone tries to unite into one system, a system of a mutual guarantee, we will begin to represent a closed system. We will start to feel a common pleasure in the form of spiritual Light that will circulate between us.

It is an everlasting sensation of an eternal perfect life that exists above our present existence and has nothing to do with our animate body. In other words, when you begin to feel this enormous circulating pleasure, our life will cease to be felt as the only one that exists. Even the death of the body will not be perceived as death anymore. It will just be a departure from the lowest and most insignificant part of you.
[58613]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 10/16/2011

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An Adapter Between The Creator And The Creature

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: While we read The Zohar, should we think about uniting with the 99% of humanity or only with those who have a point in the heart?

Answer: We should think about the whole chain: “Israel (the one who aspires to the Creator), the Torah (the Light that Reforms), and the Creator are one.” What’s the purpose of the Torah, the Light that Reforms? The purpose is for the 99% to be corrected. Israel is in the middle in order to organize this Light, bring it to the vessels (desires), and create a connection between their desires and the desires of the nations of the world so that the Light will pass through this adapter or transition and correct the nations of the world. In essence, the nations of the world are the object of influence; namely they need to be corrected.

Israel went through the breaking, passed the whole necessary preparation, and now also exists in the worst possible, broken state after intermixing with and becoming included in all the nations of the world. In addition, we still don’t know what happened to the ten lost tribes of Israel. All of this was necessary in order to bring the source of the upper Light in accordance with the nations of the world.

There should be an adapter in the middle, like Bina between Malchut and Hochma with Keter. Keter is the Thought of Creation; Hochma is the Light given to the creatures by the Thought of Creation; and Bina understands, receives, feels, and adapts the execution of this plan for the creatures with the help of its upper and lower Sefirot (GAR de Bina and ZAT de Bina).

Therefore, Israel as a whole is called “Bina.” On one hand, they should make themselves similar to the Creator since they were prepared for this by the “merits of the patriarchs.” On the other, after their breaking, the destruction of the two Temples in spirituality, and their intermixing with the nations of the world in exile, they have the readiness to also be included in the latter. Thus they can be in GAR de Bina, which is us in the process of our studies while in connection between us and the Creator, as well as in ZAT de Bina, which is us interacting with the nations of the world, their education, the dissemination of the science of Kabbalah to them, and so on.

However, on their own the nations of the world are ZON, which require correction. These ZON that require correction also have our part, Zeir Anpin within them, and a part of Malchut, which is only them. Therefore, they also have already been included in Bina.

Thus, when we study, work, and realize any actions, we should also take into account the whole system. The end of an action is in its initial thought, and we need to see this whole creation, understand how we fit into it, and realize the Creator’s order—our mission.
[58619]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/2011, The Zohar

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Discovering Oneself In Infinity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In the article “Peace in the World,” Baal HaSulam writes that in reality, we bestow upon others without any benefit for ourselves. What does that mean?

Answer: We are all in Infinity, in a wonderful system. We all bestow upon each other, and all the souls are corrected and completely filled. The end of an action is in its initial thought. Nothing separates us, and we are all in adhesion with the Creator. He and His Name are one.

Yes, we are in Infinity, but to become aware of this state, to exist in, control, and understand it in all its depth, and through it to comprehend the force that established it, we must understand and become conscious of all its elements. This is why we find ourselves in a completely opposite state and begin to gradually develop. It’s like a baby who doesn’t know where he is, what is happening around him, and who takes care of him. But little by little he grows, until he becomes an adult.

So we now are in the world of Infinity, but do not sense it. And all of our work is to return to the real reality, to discover what already exists. This is what the revelation of the Creator to the created beings is.

I discover what already exists, and everything depends upon me. Therefore, Baal HaSulam writes that it isn’t more than psychologically work on ourselves. By way of inner changes we discover the real state in which we exist from the beginning.
[58637]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/2011, “Peace in the World”

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You Will Find The Creator In The Group

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do I come to the Creator, when in reality I do not have the desire?

Answer: For you, the Creator is the collective vessel of all souls to whom you bestow. It is written: “I dwell among My people.” When this vessel manifests fully, you reveal the Creator in it.

The Creator is not some separate entity that exists outside of your reaction to the collective Kli. He neither has a form nor an appearance; He does not have an entity outside of what you find in the collective vessel.

For you the Creator is the group. When you reveal the connection between the friends, then in this common connection you reveal the Creator (Boreh), which comes from the words “come and see” (Bo-Reh). He manifests in the form you are able to see.

But He does not exist until then. Right now you do not have the Creator because it is written that you must go by what you see. You must not imagine anything outside of the limits of actual perception. You will reveal the Creator when you reach universal interconnection. It is the actual vessel that becomes imbued with mutual bestowal. And the Light will be revealed in this vessel.

It is not an abstraction of some sort—the vessel will seem to vibrate from the desire to bestow. Its “trepidation” is the Light, penetrating the universal interconnection. Everyone wants to bestow to others, everyone is connected with others, and this is why every part fulfills the other parts. This bestowal of one desire to another is called the “Light.”

Hence the Light in the Partzuf is the measures of the response in the desire. There is no Light without the vessel. The actual vessel becomes the Light when it begins to bestow. And the Creator is the commonality of bestowal, which becomes revealed inside the vessel, in the group.

Our entire work in the group brings us to the conditions that allow us to reveal and attain the Creator. I don’t go from the group to the Creator like from one room to another. The group is the vessel where I reveal everything: the upper Light (mutual bestowal) and the commonality of this Light, this bestowal, called the Creator.

Everything becomes revealed in the vessel of unity over the breaking. There is no other place, even now. There is no other reality other than the desire to receive pleasure, which experiences different states inside. It thinks that it is divided, broken, and welded to different extents and with different connections on different degrees; however, all this is happening inside of it. When it unites, it perceives the Creator, and when it loosens unity, it is left with a tiny Light. But one way or another, the reference is always to the desire and its experiences.
[58522]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/2011, “Peace in the World”

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Don’t Give Charity Where It’s Not Needed

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: An incident occurred in Tel Aviv where a woman saw a homeless man and decided not just to give him money, but to help him for real. She found him a job and took care of him, and then he killed her….

Answer: She took away a life of freedom from the vagabond. He sat on the street to his heart’s content, not worrying about what time of day it is, whether it’s morning, afternoon, or night, and not thinking about what was and what will be. He was above time and space, above all worries.

People will always throw some coins into his purse or give him something to eat…. The homeless are a special breed – they do not want to depend on anyone or anything. This is a wonderful feeling: I don’t care about anything.

“Where do you live?”
“On earth.”
“Do you have to get somewhere or get something done in time?”
“I don’t even have a watch. I don’t care what time it is.”
“But maybe you owe something to someone? Or someone owes you something?”
“Nothing of the sort.”

And now take a look at yourself: You have a million things to get done at the office and thousands of circumstances. People are calling you, expecting things from you, and your family is also demanding its share…. You simply have no idea what it’s like to be homeless. “Without a home” means without boundaries. I wish you could experience this careless sensation at least once in your life.

This is not a weekend or a vacation when you are also burdened with cares as well. A homeless person has everything tidy, he has no cares in his head and no boundaries, as if he is already floating in the clouds of the world to come.

And now someone comes and brings him down to earth, closes him up within four walls and forces him to live by schedule: wake up, wash up, shave, brush your teeth ,get dressed…. What kind of life is that?

We don’t understand these people, yet they live in a sensation that raises them above matter.

Question: How can we help these people?

Answer: To help someone does not mean to indulge yourself like the way people in Israel are who are trying to house Bedouins in apartments. The Bedouins don’t want to live within four walls and end up setting up their tents again right across the newly built neighborhood. Even if you give them a ten room apartment, they still won’t want it since they have their own ideas about what a household is.

When helping someone, you have to follow their desire rather than yours.

Question: So we should’t help people living in these conditions?

Answer: No. A person has everything he needs and he does not need anything more. If he needed housing, he would arrange it. But he does not want it. For him, setting up “his own corner” is already a restriction. It puts pressure on him. He likes sleeping any place that turns up and not worrying about the next moment.

Compared to him, we do not understand what freedom is. We are slaves while he is a master.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/27/11, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”
[58896]

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The Solution To The Crisis Is The Revelation Of The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do we connect the structure of the universe we are studying with the development of the current crisis?

Answer: Malchut of the world of Infinity has divided into an enormous number of separate egoistic pieces, which now must acquire their common structure.

How do they do it? We do not know and cannot know this structure—it is very complicated. Eventually it will become revealed to us. But there is an enormous number of connections between us, and we have to “restore” these connections. We restore them when we work with one another, disseminate, and unite.

This is exactly what we have to do. This is our objective, and this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks of.

The current crisis, on one hand, is the revelation of the system of the common interconnection (colored red in the drawing), but on the other, it is the demonstration of the fact that we are egoists and do not wish to be connected with one another. Every one of us is a separate egoist.

So what do we do? The crisis appears because we are separate egoists, but the actual system is altruistic. Where can we hide from each other? Nowhere. No props will help us fix this crisis now, even though in Europe they have been thinking a lot about finding a solution. But they are not able to think of anything because the only thing that can be done is to restore an integrated system of connections between us. We will not be able to achieve anything without restoring it.

The entire problem is for the upper Light to start operating between us, and we could open the path for it through ourselves towards one another. This is called mutual guarantee. I reveal the Light for you, you for me, and thus we reveal it for one another, until the Light fills the entire volume of the world of Infinity.

Today we are in the beginning of the path. We must do all of this together. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah exists for. This is why we go out to the streets and try explaining this to people.

The extent to which they will join us will make it easier for us to open all leaves and valves on the path of the upper Light. I hope that in this way we will quickly come closer to solving the crisis. We have a medicine, a remedy for it. We simply need to fully reveal it for us and the others and start using it.

Good luck to you in this. I hope instead of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, we will feel it going through us.
[58498]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 10/16/2011

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I Am A Conductor Of Light!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do you regulate your relationship with the Light and pleasure before you have a screen and exist in the spiritual world?

Answer: Today we can only come closer to creating a society that will gradually make us desire to open ourselves up to the Light, the circulation of this Light, so it will go through all of us, and we will be in one single system.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is based on convincing man to connect with others: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” When a person approaches this state, he begins to feel how the Light literally begins to pulsate within him, break through his egoism. And a person becomes a conductor of the Light to the extent that he opens himself up to it, in order for it go through him to others. This very gradually becomes revealed in the work in a group, in work with others.
[58501]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 10/16/2011

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Let’s Reveal The Path For The Light!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is it possible to bestow in our world without receiving pleasure, and how does one connect bestowal with our world?

Answer: We are talking about the transfer of energy, desires, and sensations, about the mergers of desires. We don’t generate Light; we only open the path for it with our intentions.

We are surrounded by Light that fills Malchut of the world of Infinity. However, as a result of the restriction, it contains a large amount of disconnected desires.

When we direct our intention to bestow toward one another, we as if raise the blinds within ourselves, and the fulfillment from the Light begins to circulate between us. All the “valves” open, and each one of us begins to feel that he exists in a single living organism.

Essentially we don’t receive or bestow Light. We only open the path for it with our intentions.
[58504]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 10/16/2011

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How Can We Check Whether Our Request Is Correct?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can a person check whether his request is clarified and correct?

Answer: If I can perform what I am asking for, it means that my request was correct. I discover deficiencies in me and ask for them to be corrected, and then I see that after some time (since it takes time in our world), I actually understand, want, aspire to, and can do it.

All the previous discernments now become much clearer. I suddenly agree with and desire all the actions and opportunities to get closer to others, which at first seemed totally unrealistic, undesirable, and repulsive to me.

I criticize people less and am able to get closer to them, understanding that spirituality can be felt only in the connection between us. I perceive the spiritual concepts more correctly and understand that we talking about the inner connection between us because this is where the spiritual world is revealed, while the concentration of the attributes of bestowal is the Creator.

I understand that spirituality is attained by practical deeds in this world, which was especially created in a way that enables us to perform certain actions even without any desire or intention for it. We can compel ourselves to do it, just as we can do many other things against our will: We go to work and fulfill different obligations in life.

This is impossible in the spiritual world because there is only pure desire there. In our world, however, the corporeal body clothes the desire, and hence the body can perform different actions even against its will. Thanks to this we can get closer to others in situations that contradict connection totally. This is the wonderful attribute of this world!

So in order to acquire the next, new level, we always have to fall into this world, which means to fall under the authority of our body. We aren’t talking about the physical body, but the desire detached from spirituality, which enables us to perform different actions even without a desire for it.

I begin every spiritual level by a physical action, with the egotistic desire, the intention for myself, and with an aspiration to profit and to receive reward. Having started this way, I can proceed to spiritual actions.

This happens in every level, until the end of correction. This is why this world must exist. Otherwise, we won’t be able to approach every new spiritual level independently.
[58404]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/23/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Less Talk, More Circulation

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: This weekend our friends all over the world will go out to the streets to distribute materials to millions of people. How can we prepare for this internally?

Answer: First of all, we should understand that everything that is happening in the world is happening for us. We must see the Creator’s guiding hand in every action. He gives us a chance to perform corrections in the light of external activities of different organizations, the intentions of which aren’t always the purest.

One of the major principles of our development is “it swallowed abundance and spew it out.” We constantly get zero results, as if pressing the gas pedal to the floor while in neutral gear. The Sitra Achra (the other, impure side) seems to swallow all our work, preparing itself to control and to rule. Eventually, however, it spews out everything it has swallowed. Everything that has accumulated in it suddenly comes back to us.

This is because we don’t have the vessels to accumulate all our efforts, to “store” the results of our activity in the world. Millions of newspapers, lots of books, the Internet, television—everything seems to be going into a bottomless pit. But later we will get it back, according to the rule of “it swallowed abundance and spew it out.”

Even today different forces in the world, with greater and lesser degrees of purity, offer us an opportunity for dissemination. We don’t have to take them into account, but rather we continue our own way, without developing any relationships with them. We are only in contact with people who are pushed out of their homes by these forces. They take part in the demonstrations chanting slogans, and in the meantime we give out our materials in silence.

Our materials will do their work. This is because in every leaflet that we give people there is a connection with the Light. The Light will flow through the letters we printed and will do their job.

We can already see the results all over the world. Our friends are amazed by how quickly people connect to our message and are ready for more. Even professors come with their students to study this phenomenon that contradicts common knowledge.

So we only have to prepare lots of materials that convey our message and to talk less, especially outside Israel, where our forces are limited. Baal HaSulam says that it is even possible to hire people to advertise our message of unity, but the content must always be ours.

All our friends must go out to the streets tomorrow. It is this kind of work that can truly connect us. This is a great opportunity for all of us. No one should stay home. There are people who haven’t been coming to the group for years because they aren’t happy with it. But now is not the time for hard feelings.

If you really want to advance towards the goal, if your spiritual life is more important to you than your pride, step on your pride and come. Start connecting with others for this cause. Take a pile of flyers and give them out. Even if you go home afterwards without speaking with any of your friends, the external action will have its effect. After all, without connection you won’t reach the goal.

So, we go out to the streets in order to distribute our materials to the masses. Less talk, more circulation of flyers. Now is not the time to talk to people. It’s enough for them to receive leaflets with our Internet address. It is a rare opportunity for us, and we shouldn’t miss it.

Everything will change in the future. We have to find the ways to disseminate our message on the Internet as widely as possible. One way or another, everyone uses the Internet today. Moreover, people gladly leave us their e-mail addresses and even telephone numbers and are ready for further communication. Hence, in the future, the emphasis will shift to virtual space and communication.
[57557]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/14/2011, “One Commandment”

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